The Jarawa and Their Society

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Chapter - 3

The Jarawa and Their Society

3.1.

3.2.

3.3.

The term Jarawa in common parlancewas synonymous with hostility and nudity in pre-1997 days. In theAka-bea Andamanese language the word ‘Jarawa’ means“stranger”. But the Jarawas call themselves as “Ang” while the non-tribals are termed as “eenem” by Jarawas. The Jarawa language is

yet to be studied in depth. However, preliminary studies indicatethat the sound system of the Jarawa language attests 13 vowelphonemes and 26 consonant phonemes. The word system of thelanguage attests six words classes namely noun, pronoun, verb,

adjective, adverb and particle (Raja Singh 2002:116-119). The Jarawas are characterized by the physical features of short stature,dark skin, frizzly and wooly hair, broad to round head shape.

The Jarawa tribe inhabits today theWestern region of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands. Ithas three socially discernable territorial divisions viz. NorthernGroup occupying Western part of Middle Andaman Island,Southern Group and Central Group occupying Western part ofSouth Andaman Island. The Northern Group is known among the

Jarawas as Tanmad and as ‘Kadamtala Jarawa’ among non-tribals.Southern Group is known as Boiab among Jarawas and non-

Jarawas call them as ‘Tirur Jarawas’. The Central Group is knownas Thidong among the Jarawa and among non-Jarawas it is knownas ‘R. K. Nallah Jarawas’.

Demography

The multi-disciplinary Research teamsenumerated 266 Jarawas altogether. 84 in Southern Group (Boiab) ,78 in Central Group (Thidong) and 104 in Northern Group(Tanmad) . The Age - sex distribution among the Jarawas isindicated in Table 3.1.

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Table 3.1 Age-sex distribution of total enumerated Jarawapopulation

Male Female TotalAgegroups

(in yrs)

N % n % N %

Sexratio*

0-4 14 8.27 14 7.32 28 7.81 1005-9 19 15.79 28 22.76 47 19.14 147

10-14 28 21.80 26 17.89 54 19.92 930-14 61 45.86 68 47.97 129 46.87 11115-34 46 33.08 35 32.52 91 32.81 7635-44 10 11.28 10 14.63 20 14.84 10015-44 56 44.36 45 47.15 111 45.70 9845+ 18 9.77 18 4.88 26 7.42 100

Total 135 99.99 131 100.00 266 99.99 97*Sex ratio indicates number of females per 100 males.

3.4.

3.5.

3.6.

The age-sex distribution of the studiedpopulation indicates that 46.87% of their population was below 15

years of age, while 45.70% belonged to the most economically andreproductively active population group (15 to 44 years). Only 7.42%of the Jarawas are 45 years of age and above. The femalesoutnumber the males in the pre-reproductive age categories (below15 years), except in the early childhood category of below 5 years.

The overall sex ratio of the Jarawa population was estimated to be97 females per 100 males, suggesting a rather balanced state.

A large number of families are made up ofonly two members (30.51%), followed by four (23.73%) and fivemembers (16.95%). Families comprising six and seven members are8.47% each. The average family size of the Jarawas was estimatedto be of 3.75 persons. While nuclear families are common amongthe Jarawas, joint families are uncommon. Nomadic way of life ofthe Jarawas might be the primary reason for this nuclear familynorm.

Among the Jarawas the girls generally get

married by 15 years of age. Only seven girls above this age werefound unmarried; this might have happened due to death of theirprospective husbands or non-availability of suitable mates at thatpoint of time. Widowhood does not affect the childbearingpotentiality of females in this society, since widows/widowers aregenerally remarried.

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3.7.

3.8.

3.9.

Though the Jarawas are strictlymonogamous, subsequent marriages are common among them.Almost three fourth of the males and females were married once,little less than one fourth of the married persons married twice,while about two percent of the males and females married thrice.

The marriage age incompatibility was also found among them,although to a limited extent. In some cases the husbands are

younger to their wives.

Reproductive performance of fifty-sixmarried women was documented. It was noted that 30.36 % ofthem had no children, in fact majority (about seventy percent) ofthe childless women were newly married, who were yet to recordtheir reproductive potentiality. It has also been observed, ten(17.86%) out of 56 married women had at least one live birth and

15 (26.79%) had two children. It is estimated that about 3.57% ofthe total married women had no issue even at the end of theirreproductive span. The average number of surviving children permother is estimated to be 2.51, while it is estimated to be 1.78 permarried woman. The reproductive index, as revealed from the child-woman ratio among the Jarawas, was estimated to be 1.51. Duringthe entire field investigation in all the areas four Jarawa women(7.14%) were reported to be at various stages of pregnancy; in oneof those cases a stillbirth was reported.

It was difficult to establish the mortalityrate of the Jarawas. A very rough estimate of the percentage ofmortality was made by enumerating all the live births and deathsthat took place during the period of study (from December 10th2001 to September 9th 2002). During this period the total numberof live births was ten while four children below one year of age died.

Thus the infant mortality was estimated to be about 40%, whichwas relatively high for this small population. It has also beenobserved that male infant mortality was relatively higher than that

of the females, suggesting greater survival opportunities for thefemales. Keeping in view the high proportion of young individuals,reasonably balanced sex ratio, higher proportion of fertile women,proper replacement of prospective mothers suggest a progressivepopulation trend among the Jarawas.

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Social Organization

3.10.

3.11.

3.12.

3.13.

The social organization of the Jarawa Tribe has three types of social units viz. Family or Household, LocalGroup, or Band and Territorial Group. Three Territorial Groupstogether constitute the Tribe.

The smallest social unit among the Jarawas is family, the members of a nuclear family are husband,wife, and their young children. Those children can be from earliermarriage(s) of the couple or born from their present marriage. Oncethe children grow beyond the age of six or seven years, they do notshare the sleeping space with their parents, but live with thebachelor boys or maidens, depending on their sex. From this agethey move from one camp to another independent of their parents.

The boys staying away from parents livein a group of other such boys, till they get married. Similarly, theunmarried girls also stay together. In case of death of the husbandin a family, the unit ceases to exist and the widow, with her youngchildren, if any, stays with the maidens or other such widows.Similar is the case with the widowers; they stay with the bachelors.

The young children of the widowers generally stay with somerelated family, where there is a lady member. A person may leavethe children with his brother or sister’s family. Once remarried, thewidowed people establish their own families again.

Thus, one may come across three kinds ofhousehold units; the nuclear family units, units of young boys andwidowers, units of maidens and widows. The Jarawas refer to a hutor a settlement as chadda , and identify the residence of a family astutime chadda , residence of unmarried boys with or withoutwidower inmates as thorkalang chadda and a maidens’ residencewith or without widow inmates as thorkongo chadda . It may benoted, such separate residential units are not used throughout the

year, especially during the monsoon months all the social unitsgenerally share one common residence, the large community hut.In this hut, however, there would be demarcated sleeping spaceand hearth for each unit.

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3.14.

3.15.

3.16.

3.17.

A Local Group or Band consists of severalfamilies and some individuals who camp together and move fromone place to another while shifting camp. Most members of a localgroup are related to each other either through consanguineal oraffinal relations. These local groups, however, are not of very

permanent nature; they often go through processes of fission andfusion. It may happen that the persons camping together maydivide them up in smaller groups and go in different directions andreassemble somewhere at a later date; it may also happen thatmembers of one local group unite with members of another groupto camp together for a few days or even a longer period.

The next larger social unit is the Territorial Group. There can be several Local Groups in one such Territorial Group. There are certain customs governing the rights of

a territorial group over its territory. Persons are free to foragewithin their own territory, but they are not supposed to do sobeyond its limit. In case some people are interested to forage insome other territory, they must meet the concerned group and seektheir permission. Generally the hosts accompany the guests to pighunting or honey collection and the foraged item is shared.Whenever a group of persons are on visit to another area, the hoststake the opportunity of inviting them to forage together. This isconsidered a gesture of hospitality. When the guests take leave, it iscustomary for the hosts to offer them meat, honey, arrow and such

other parting gifts.

Though the territorial divisions enjoyconsiderable autonomy, the larger group i.e. the tribe seems to bequite important. Jarawas are an endogamous people. Socialinteractions take place regularly between all the territorial divisionsthrough marriage and social visits. Members of the Tanmad groupknow each member of the Boiab group personally, though they livea long distance apart and have another territorial group inbetween, the Thidong .

Customs

After attaining thirteen to fourteen yearsof age the adolescent ceremony of a boy, lepa , is celebrated. Theboy is supposed to hunt a wild pig with his own endeavour (he is

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assisted by his certain kin in that) and offers it to his kin andothers. The opemame ceremony of a girl is observed when sheattains puberty. As per custom the Jarawas rename their childrenduring or after the adolescent ceremony.

3.18.

3.19.

3.20.

3.21.

On the first day of menarche hermovement was restricted within a small square area surrounded byfour posts and she kept her eyes closed. A mixture of alum (areddish soil), pig fat and gum extracted from a creeper was appliedon her head, neck and face. During that period she did not talk toany person; she did not take bath and kept seated or lied on a bedof ‘deoa’ leaf. Every morning those leaves were changed. There weresome restrictions on food, she was not served with pig meat andhoney. She would primarily subsist on onog (a kind of mollusc) andeeng (water).

After three days, she took bath and atepig meat, especially pig fat. That morning she took some smallkid(s) on her lap and prayed for fertility. On that day all women andgirls present in the camp gathered around her. The girl was dressedwith floral ornaments; the women and the girls sang and danced.In their songs they described what adulthood of a woman means,that she has entered the reproductive life, and how she wouldmake love (henaga ) with her mate. The girl also sang a song of herown. Unmarried girls spend time in jungle and make love with their

beloved ones. They use two types of leaves (known as wachahi andhatho among the Jarawas), as contraceptive. Some of the marriedwomen also use those.

Usually the parents of a child or elderpersons of the family start discussing a match for marriage, whenthe prospective bride or groom is one or two years old. Afterattaining the age of seven or eight years, the prospective bride orgroom may move from one camp to another with the would-be in-laws and share food with them, but stays with the bachelors or the

maidens of that particular local group, and not with the family ofthe future in-laws. Sometimes such proposed marriages are notfinally solemnised.

Though age could not counted in terms of years, generally the age at marriage appears to be eighteen totwenty years for the boys and fourteen to fifteen years for the girls.

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If the proposed husband of a girl dies before the marriage issolemnised, many a times such a girl is found to be compelled tomarry some widower.

3.22.

3.23.

3.24.

3.25.

During the menstrual period of wife, the

husband is not allowed to sleep with his partner till the bleedingstops. For first pregnancy, the lady, and her husband do not useany apparel or ornament and do not decorate their body with whiteclay. The lady does not accept anything, edible or non-edible, fromthe non-Jarawas. It is found that during pregnancy they avoid fewfoods and preferred few. During parturition the Jarawa lady isisolated at a corner sitting on jungli supari planks with a fire nearby. They cut the umbilical cord with arrows head, and mother feedsthe baby with first milk “cholustrum”.

Some elderly lady of the settlementattends delivery of a child. The women demonstrate their happinessafter birth of a female child by clapping. The old women,particularly the maternal grandmother of the new-born, startcrying after the birth. After a while all of them participate indancing and singing.

Both father and mother take care of theirchildren since birth. A baby fully depends on breast feeding tilldental formation and such feeding continues up to 2 to 3 years of

age, along with other foods. They feed the new-born the first breast-milk (colostrums). Breast milk is given to the child not only by themother, but also by other women of the same group, whenevernecessary. Sometimes even the unmarried girls put their breast inthe child’s mouth to stop it from crying.

The elders and teenage girls share theresponsibility to care the young ones. The infants are carried alongwith them with plant fibre bands supporting from their heads oracross the shoulders and the infant’s hands are tied in the front at

the wrists around the neck of the elder. Monitor lizard fat is used tomassage the newborn babies. The first stage of weaning is done bygiving small quantities of boar fat increasing it day by day, thenhoney and followed by boar meat, fish etc.

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3.26.

3.27.

3.28.

3.29.

Sometimes close relatives of a deceasedperson can be seen to wear the mandible or small pieces of longbones of the dead person on neck or on waist. The Jarawasgenerally dispose of a dead inside the forest away from their camp

site. They leave it partially or completely exposed, often between thebuttresses of some large tree, and wait for its decomposition beforecollecting the pieces of bone. The bones are worn for some days orweeks as mark of mourning.

Kinship

Kinship plays a significant role in Jarawa

society. This can be seen in many ways. The kins extend theircooperation in constructing family hut or a large community hut, inforaging activities, in movement from one camp site to another. The

Jarawas generally refer to and address their kin by using kinshipterms and not by using personal names. Their kinship terms aremainly descriptive in nature. In reference the kinship terms areprefixed with pronouns like ma , u, wa ; thus kaya (mother) becomeswakaya (my mother), aamume (father) becomes wamume (myfather); mau-mame (father’s father) becomes u-ma-a ; so also kaya- ume (mother’s father) becomes u-ma-a , while maya-waya is the

term for mother’s mother.

In address, they simply use the term kaya for mother, aamume for father. The elder ones refer to youngerbrothers and sisters as aaikota , while elder sibs, irrespective oftheir sex, are called maapo . The younger ones are addressed byname. The classificatory term da stands for son or boy, do-e standsfor daughter or girl, and these terms also refer to grandchildren.

Material Culture

They make tools and implements usingmaterials that are available from their forest habitat, except iron.Since long they have been collecting iron from different sources likewrecked ships and later from the settlements/villages. Theartefacts made and used by them are mostly function oriented and

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gender specific. Always the men make the hunting implements likebow (aav ), arrow ( patho ) and chest guard (kekad). Conversely, thewomen make fishing net (botho ) and cane basket (ta -aika ), whichare used for collecting and gathering activities. There is, however,no gender restriction in using the artefacts, except that the widows

are not supposed to use bow and arrow as the same had beendestroyed with the death of her husband.

3.30.

3.31.

Shelter: Though the Jarawas consider thesettlement area as well as a hut as a chadda , they differentiatedifferent types. A small lean-to-type temporary hut used by acouple and their children is tutime chadda . A semi-permanentCommunity hut can be oval or round shaped; such a hut can be ofmedium size meant for four to five families, or it can be large meantfor twenty and more families. Such a shelter is known as chadda-

de huthu or chadda-de-thuma. A bachelor boys’ dormitory, wherewidowers also reside, is called ‘ thorkalang chadda ’ and a maidens’or widows’ dormitory is ‘ thorkongo chadda ’. The size of a temporarylean-to-type hut (tutime chadda ) varies from 4.5' to 5' in length, 5'to 5.5' in breadth and 4.5' to 5' in height. Generally six to eightbranches of locally available trees with a diameter of about 2" to 3"are used as supporting pillars on which long branches are tied withbark strips, both horizontally and vertically, for supporting the roof(wilpo ). Then the roof is thatched with long cane leaves and a kindof palm leaves (salai patti ). Both men and women take part in

collection of materials as well as in construction of shelters. Fromcollection of materials to construct a lean-to-type hut they requireone to one and a half-hour.

There are permanent space demarcationin the Community hut for individual families. This demarcatedspace is known as thula . There would be a central fireplace in eachlarge hut used for baking or boiling meat, besides the individualhearths for the family units. Common fireplace is found in eachmedium size hut also. In most cases there is a ham or hanging

platform for keeping pig-fat and meat. Such a platform is madeabove the central fireplace. One or two such platforms are used forkeeping household articles. The platforms are generally made atabout 21/2 or 3 feet high from ground. In each semi permanent hut,in addition to various foraging and household articles, there wouldbe number of pig skulls hanging from the roof tied with cane stripsor put in fishing nets.

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3.36.

3.37.

3.38.

3.39.

3.40.

The Jarawas are very fond of singingwhich is related to their activities like making floral ornaments,baskets, wooden buckets or fetching water. Dance is also anintegral part of their life.

Arrow ( patho ): There are different kinds ofarrows for different purposes. Arrow making is a long process andthe iron for the same is either supplied by the Administration orprocured from roadside and villages. Iron is given shape with thehelp of chisel and hammer without tempering it. It is sharpened ona piece of stone. Once the arrow is ready it is fixed to a bambooshaft (theenaang ) and tied with the string, which is made of thefibre of a climber known as wiibo . Thereafter the tied portion(thopijaye ) is waxed. Depending on size and shape and nature the

arrows are classified into the following types:

(a) Arrow used for hunting of pig(b) Arrow used for fishing(c) Arrow used for hunting monitor lizard(d) Harpoon for pig hunting

Bow (aav ): For making bow wood of chooi (Sagarea elliptica) is used. It was observed that the tree is not

available throughout the Jarawa territory. In order to procure thesame they move long distances, sometimes to Potatang or toBaratang Island. The bowstring, betho , is made from fibre of aclimber known as way . The string of the harpoon is made of fibre ofehabad climber.

Knife (twad ): Knife is generally used fordifferent purposes ranging from cutting flesh to making string froma bark or a leaf. Method of making knife is same as arrow head.

The knife is made either of iron or aluminium. The flattened end of

knife is rapped with the string of tha-an , an orchid (dendrobium).

Chest Guard (kekad ): Chest guard isused by adult male Jarawas during hunting and gatheringactivities, though it is not compulsory; they insert their knives in it.It also protects the chest and abdomen from injury, which mayoccur during hunting. It is made of bark strip of Stracula vilosa .

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spend considerable time in making the ornaments and also formaking designs on their own face or body.

Food and Subsistence Activities

3.46.

3.47.

3.48.

3.49.

Food is normally procured throughhunting, gathering and fishing. The procured food includesvarieties of fruits, tubers, honey, mollusc, fish, and animals likepig, monitor lizard and turtle. Besides, honey was an importantitem of food for the Jarawas.

The Jarawas move in groups into the jungles and keep watch on prospective locations for pigs in

somewhat open spaces in the jungle. If they can locate pigs, theyapproach carefully and try to take position from different angles. Then they shoot arrow from a distance of about 15 to 20 m.Occasionally the Jarawas take support of dogs to surround the pigsfrom different sides and hunt the animals more easily.

Normally the men hunt crabs by hittingarrows when these were encountered in water or mudflats. Thewomen use net for trapping the crabs and often dug out the crabsfrom burrows. The women and children usually caught fishes from

shallow waters, in streams and near shoreline, by hand-nets. The Jarawa men and boys used pointed arrows (without metallicarrowheads) made up of bamboo for fishing. The success rates ofhitting the targets were high (about 70%). They used to gather thehunted fishes in the baskets on their backs.

Jarawa women collected turtles’ eggs fromthe sandy beach in a bay area. The turtle nesting grounds weredetected near the edge of tidal flat (high water mark), where grassgrew. The women and children used to collect marine molluscs like

trochus , turbo , giant clams, cowries etc., from the inter-tidal areasof coral beds on open seashore or mouth of bay area. During lowtides the coral beds were generally exposed where these molluscswere seen in good numbers. The chitons and neritids were usuallycollected from rocks on the tidal flats.

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3.50.

3.51.

3.52.

3.53.

The clams were often seen in mangrovemudflat areas. During low tides mud flats were exposed and the

Jarawa girls collected clams from the puddles or depressed areaswhere water was still standing. They used to feel the presence ofclams by their feet, and picked up and collected in baskets. The

Jarawas collect grubs of wood inhabiting beetles. The women usedto collect grubs from soil just underneath rotting logs. Thelarvae/grubs of the borers were collected by exposing/cutting aninfested tree or tree stumps by cutting these with the help of axe.

The Jarawas collect honey produced bytwo types of honeybees. They climb trees, cut the beehives andbring them down in containers made of wood. The person who firstlocates a beehive enjoys the privilege of collecting it. If the personcannot collect the honey immediately, a few shrubs around the tree

are broken to notify others that the beehive has already beenlocated. Both men and women collect honey; there is no genderdifference in this pursuit. Honey is partly eaten on the spot by allpersons present and the remainder is brought back to the camp.Considerable difference in availability of honey between the twosuccessive seasons; post monsoon (December) and dry (May) wasnoted. The estimated collection of honey per beehive was 8.812 kg(including wax) in December (n-8, mean-8.812, SD – 3.85kg) and itwas 3.267 kg in May (n- 4, mean-3.267, SD – 3.307 kg).

Collecting caterpillar, mostly larva ofwoodborer, is an important pursuit. The caterpillars fall fromcanopy of the trees to ground just before metamorphoses, and

Jarawas collect them. Sometimes they cut the tree trunks with axeto extract the borer larva inside. Availability of this item markedseasonal variation.

Gathering wild edible plants is anotherimportant subsistence activity for the women. The major edibleplant resources are wild tubers, seeds of various plants and various

seasonal fruits. Women gather wild tubers by digging earth withiron rods. The proportion of wild tuber in their diet is quite low(about 6%) and that too when they stay in interior parts of forest.Wild tuber accounts for a major part of the total starchy foodintake; this item can be eaten after boiling or baking. There isconsiderable difference in density of such food plants between

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various types of forest, such as deciduous or evergreen. Leaves arenot used as food; those are used as medicine.

3.54.

3.55.

3.56.

The Jarawas eat many kinds of seeds;some are eaten raw and some are processed before eating. Most of

these seeds are gathered and transported to the camp by thewomen, while men occasionally help the women in gathering, whenthe seeds are available abundantly. Availability of seeds has astrong seasonal variation. All kinds of fruits are eaten fresh, and agreat portion is consumed on the gathering spot itself, exceptPometia pinnata, Baucaria sapida, Cycus sp., which are gatheredin large quantities and carried to the camp. Men, especially the

young ones, climb high up the trees to collect jackfruit, whichbecomes abundant during the peak dry season. During the dryseason jackfruit comprised a considerably high portion of their

food, more at camps in interior parts of forest and less in coastalareas.

Traditionally, food was cooked in pitovens called aalaav ; those were made inside or outside their hutsfor roasting food. Such ovens are mostly used to cook pig meat and

jackfruit. After three to four hours the cooked food is taken out forconsumption. In recent times, it has been observed that most of thetime they boil pig meat and other items of food. Boiling is done inbuchu or aluminium vessels. Those vessels were either supplied by

the AAJVS or procured from the villages. The males process pigmeat; cooking the meat in pit ovens is also done by them, whileboiling meat in a buchu is not a gender specific job. It has generallybeen observed that the males consume larger part of pig meat. If itis monitor lizard, only the males consume it without giving anyshare to the females.

Jarawa Movement

Jarawa is a nomadic tribe. Jarawas movefrom place to place for the various purposes like foraging,socializing etc. Generally members of one or two families leavecamp for some time and go to places to visit their relatives. Youngboys of a camp-group often go to visit other groups of Jarawas. Inthe latter case the visitors do not indulge much in socialising with

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their relations, they prefer to interact with persons from their ownage from both the sexes. The boys also prefer to take part inhunting or fishing together with their hosts; going to jetties, policeoutposts and such other places where they can meet the eenens(non-Jarawas).

3.57.

3.58.

3.59.

On the basis of frequency of movementand in terms of distance covered, they may be put under threegroups. Least mobile were the groups comprising maidens, widowsand spinsters. They moved with the family units within theirterritory, but never ventured out of it into the territory of other

Jarawa groups. The most mobile groups were those of theunmarried boys initiated into hunterhood. Even within their ownterritory the boys were found to move separately and at a fasterpace than others. The family groups, widowers and small boys

stood somewhere in between.

There is a specific division of work to bedone in relation to movement from one place to another. While themales were observed to pack and carry their own huntingimplements, the ladies were seen to carry the food articles likehoney, roots, tubers or smoked meat in possession of the family, inaddition to her own belongings. After reaching a new camp site, agroup generally divides the works to be done for settling down. Theladies and the children go for collection of poles and leaves required

for erecting temporary shelters, the men go out in search of somefood. The maidens erect their own shelter and then go out for foodcollection.

While moving from one camp to anotheralong west coast or in interior parts of the forest, the Jarawas walk.While crossing the crocodile infested creeks of coastal areas, theychop down tree trunks and use the same as bridges. All these aretraditional ways of movement. In recent years they have learnt tomake use of the roads and motorised means of transport, wherever

those are available. When they were camping at places close to theAndaman Trunk Road, they were riding buses and lorries regularly.

This has drastically changed the speed of their movement.

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Beliefs about Nature and Universe

3.60.

3.61.

3.62.

3.63.

Appearance and movement of the celestialbodies of sun (ehey ) and the moon (taape ) influence the

subsistence activities of the Jarawas and their movement from onecamp to another. Like forest and sea, the Jarawas consider the sunand the moon as important phenomena for their living andsurvival. They also recognise the sky ( pangne ), stars (chhilobe ) asdistinct phenomena like cloud (ethi-bithi ) and rain (o-ho ).

The term ehey is used to identify the sunas well as daytime or daylight. However, they identify differentparts of a day by different names; dawn is chapogiye, morning iskekame , afternoon is thepole , dusk is chokitaji and night is kethale .

The directions, east and west, are identified with the rising andsetting sun. During day hours time is measured with movement ofthe sun. They know that the ehey never dies, it comes back everymorning. But unless the sun sets, the taape can not come.

The taape or moon is differentiated onbasis of its size and appearance; like taape-epadiwaiya (very smallmoon), ehaba-hutu-thame (big moon) and ehaba-tuhuma (fullmoon). Complete disappearance of the moon is called nademame .Rise and fall of the level of sea and its waves depend on appearance

of moon, the Jarawas relate it with high tide (chakthe ) and low tide(chigi -a ).

They enjoy the moonlit nights with great joy by singing gegap (song) and paaloha dancing. During thisperiod they can collect more honey from forest, get more fish ormollusc from sea and creeks (ho-ag ). In moonlit nights they even gofor hunting or fishing, which is not possible during dark nights.

The new moon or dark nights are not preferred, as they are scaredof evil spirits that may appear during dark nights.

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Chapter - 4

Jarawas Journey to the Present: History

of Their Relationship with Non-Jarawas4.1.

4.2.

4.3.

The origin of Andaman Islanders has beenthe subject of speculation for centuries. The latest geneticresearches indicate that the Andamanese have clear affinities toAsian than African populations and therefore are the descendantsof early Paleolithic colonizers of South East Asia - the huntergatherers and the first migrants moved out of Africa about 60,000-100 thousand years ago. (Thagaraj et.al. 2002).Palaeoanthropological evidences suggest that Andaman Negrito

occupied the islands at least 2000 years ago (Dutta 1974).

On the basis of her archaeologicalfindings Zarine Cooper held that the Islanders must be regarded asactive players in the arena of the Andaman Sea wherein layadequate scope for the adoption and rejection of ideas andinnovations. Despite being victims of slave raiders and othermarauders, the Islanders were, by and large, able to keep strangersat bay and, when the occasion arose, were able to interact with

them. She concludes with note that Andaman Island represents thedynamic interaction of traditions within and outside theArchipelago, a process that spans at least two millennia [Cooper2002:165.167).

Before the advent of non-autochthons inAndaman Islands in the previous century, the Great Andaman(which is divided into South, Middle and North Andaman Islands)was inhabited by the numerically predominant Great Andamanese

and the Jarawas, while the Little Andaman by the Onges, and theNorth Sentinel by the Sentinelese. Thus, the Great Andamaneseand Jarawas were the immediate neighbors. Though they were atloggerheads for ages, they nonetheless lived in that state all along.Both the tribes had the same culture pattern and as such thesimilar eco-cultural-equilibrium was struck, that is to say they hadthe same "nature-culture complex".

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4.4.

4.5.

On the contrary, non-autochthons, whoarrived in Andaman Islands in 19th and 20th century following thetwo major events of 1857 and 1947 in the Indian history, belong tothe culture pattern so different from that of aborigines and with

their nature-culture complex so much unlike that of theautochthons that the latter suffered the "psycho-technologicalshock" due to farmer’s impact. The nature-culture complex ofautochthons operates through the eco-cultural equilibrium, an ageold phenomenon, on other hand, the nature-culture complex ofnon-autochthons is based on the economic growth model (for morewealth and more comforts for more people), the modernphenomenon which has already become old aged, because itoperates basically on non-cyclic process of exploitation of naturalresources.

Colonial Period

The history of the relationship of Jarawaswith non-Jarawas in the early period is interlinked and inseparablefrom such history of Andamanese, another Negrito tribe among theAndaman Islanders. Mukhopadyay (2002:25-42) has narratedhistory of interface of Negritos of Andamans and non-islanders. A

retrospection of the relationship between the Jarawas and the non- Jarawas suggests continuity of a pattern. Colonial forces havealmost always utilized the available resources for their own benefitand seldom for the welfare of the 'native islanders'. Till earlynineteenth century the 'new-world' colonizers exterminated the'aborigines' by arms or by poisoning and then by introducingvarious diseases among them. Many American tribes and the

Tasmanians fell prey to such situations. As the Andaman Islandswere colonized during the second half of the nineteenth century,the governmental policies for the Andaman islanders were

somewhat different. The Administrators were supposed to userestraint while dealing with these people. Efforts were made to'befriend' and 'civilize' them.. Establishment of the settlement tosubjugate the islanders and then settling some people permanentlyin the islands was a deadly combination for the native populationsof the Andamans.

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4.6.

4.7.

4.8.

4.9.

The first few years of Penal Settlementwere marred by frequent conflicts between the colonizers and theislanders. Within a few years, however, some of the 'GreatAndamanese' people became 'friendly', their interaction with thecolonizers grew manifold, and steps were initiated to 'civilize' them.

An “Andaman Home” was founded at Port Blair and Chaplain Rev.Corbyne was given the charge of the Home. To 'civilize' the'savages', Mr. Corbyne started teaching them English, Urdu andelementary arithmetic. They were made to work with the convicts atclearing sites. Such intensive contact was soon followed byintroduction and rapid spread of certain diseases among the GreatAndamanese.

Homes for the Andamanese were

established at different strategic locations for maintaining'friendship' with the 'outlying' Andamanese and to capture thefugitives. E.H. Man was in charge “Andaman Home” from 1875 to1879. The high points of this period are detection of syphilis andoutbreak of measles among the inhabitants of the Homes. M.V.Portman took charge of the Home in 1879 and continued till 1900and he spent almost the entire length of his tenure trying to savethe Great Andamanese from one epidemic or the other (Mathur1968:106).

After retirement of Portman in 1900, nospecial officer was given the charge of the Home, but it was putunder the charge of the Deputy Commissioner. A&N Islands (atthat time there was one District). The Government was interested toreconciliate the 'native islanders' with certain objectives, whichwere; (i) to ensure that the crews of wrecked vessels are treated wellby the islanders and they are escorted to Port Blair, (ii) It was alsoexpected that the islanders would stop resisting the plan ofcolonization, and (iii) they would rather act as Bush-Policemen andhelp the authorities to capture the fugitive convicts from the forest

(Portman 1899:49).

In the annual report for the year 1872-1873 General Steward wrote that the Jarawas "seem to bepeaceably disposed” whereas the Little Andaman Islandershabitually kill, or attempt to kill, everyone that lands on theirshores (Portman 1899:716). The same report however further states

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that by that time all tribes were in friendly terms excluding the Jarawas, about whom little was known.

4.10.

4.11.

4.12.

4.13.

The Jarawas were being pushed from thesouth by the 'Settlement and Forest operations' and Portman

predicted that they would move farther and farther north(1899:765). He felt, as the 'other aborigines' are dying out makingmore and more land available to the Jarawas, nothing couldprevent them from moving up to Port Cornwallis, a place innorthernmost part of the Great Andamans. In 1891 some Jarawascrossed Middle Strait to enter Baratang Island and some places inMiddle Andaman Island being driven northward by the abovementioned factors and also by a devastating cyclone. Theturnaround from a policy of 'protecting the tribes from collisionswith the settlers and thus saving the weaker race from

extermination' was complete, when in 1905 a Bush Police Forcewas formed with 'friendly Andamanese' as members and a Burmese

Jemadar in charge of it. Their job was to hunt the Jarawas andrunway convicts (Mathur 1968:114-5).

With each passing year hostileinteractions with the Jarawas increased. Convicts and policemenwere being attacked and killed by them. Incidents were taking placein areas, which the Jarawas might be considering to be their ownterritory.

Bhakhtawar Singh (2002:6-12) writes thatthe British had the policy of not allowing the Jarawas to enter intothe settlement area. To check the movement of the Jarawas, theBritish government established a chain of Bush Police posts alongthe periphery of the Jarawa territory. Sometime punitiveexpeditions were sent to catch or kill the Jarawas.

In September 1937, the Police tried tocatch some Jarawas from Baratang area, but most of them

managed to escape. Only a woman and her four children could becaught. One of the daughters of the woman, was named as Topsyand was brought to Port Blair. Later Bishop Richardson took her toCar Nicobar, where she was married to a Nicobari youth. Thecouple had several children. One of Topsy’s brothers was sent toRanchi for education, but he died there after some time.

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4.14.

4.15.

4.16.

One Jarawa girl was taken to Ferrargunjby Brigadier Francis and she was kept at Aniket village. There shewas being looked after by a person of the Bhantu community. Laterthe girl learnt some Hindi and also began to work in the Brigadier’soffice. After some time she was asked whether she wanted to go

back to her own people or would prefer to stay in the welfare home.She opted to go back and was sent back. But after a few monthsshe died.

At one point of time it was felt that themost effective way to conciliate the Jarawas was to 'capture them inlarge numbers, tame them and then send them back asmessengers of peace'. One expedition organized in 1939 byMcCarthy, Commandant, Civil and Military Police, was consideredto be successful, as they could capture one young woman with

three of her children. The experiment of taming them and sendingthem back could not be completed due to Japanese occupation ofthe Islands (Census 1961:104).

Andaman and Nicobar Islands were under Japanese occupation from March 1942 to October 1945. The Japanese were interested to fortify the entire coastline but the Jarawas made their work on the west coast of Andamans difficult.So the Jarawa territory was indiscriminately bombed, the Jarawaswere fired upon (Mukhopadyay 2002:36).

4.17.

Post-Independence Period (1947 to 1997)

The post-independence scenario was notcompletely different as skirmishes between the two peoplecontinued. However, some land was declared as tribal reserve andentry into the area by unauthorized persons was prohibited. Thisdecision of creating a tribal reserve was understandably takenwithout consulting the Jarawas. They had no knowledge wheretheir territory ended and the settlement area started. So, creationof the reserve could not remove all the factors responsible for asituation of conflict.

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4.18.

4.19.

4.20.

4.21.

4.22.

However, elaborate arrangements weremade to protect the villages, forest camps and persons working inthe reserve or in adjoining areas. The Bush Police Force was nomore a group of game trackers and hunters. By 1961, it wasmanned by 35 Jemadars, 311 Constables and one Inspector

operating from 44 camps along the periphery of the reserve. Inaddition, the Forest Department maintained 150 Constables. Boththe forces were armed (Census 1961: 104).

The Government of India decided tocolonize the islands by encouraging immigration of free population.

The first groups of such settlers were some displaced families fromthe erstwhile East Pakistan, who were rehabilitated in 1949. Theidea behind the colonization programme was to 'grow more food'and make the islands self-sufficient in the matter of food (Census

1961: XLiv).

Once the colonization programme wasinitiated a very rapid growth of non-tribal population was recordedin the islands. Large tracts of land were required for this massivecolonization programme and land cleared for such purpose wasoften very close to the tribal habitat with no buffer space inbetween. Close physical proximity of two such populations who hadlittle or no knowledge about each other helped in the perpetuationof mutual distrust.

The rehabilitated families were given someagricultural land probably with the idea that they would pursueagriculture for generations and the land at their disposal would beable to withstand the population growth in years to come. It wasalso expected that the population growth would obey the 'normalbiological and economic forces'. But the forces did not work asdesired and the rate of growth was no more 'normal'. Resourcecrunch among the settler population was inevitable and the loadwas shifted to some extent to the resources available within the

Jarawa habitat. illegal logging and poaching of games by a sectionof the settlers kept the situation of conflict alive.

Bhaktawar Singh narrates about friendlycontact expeditions to Jarawas, a practice continued by theAdministration with mission to befriend the Jarawas by droppingthe gifts and not by firing the bullets. In June 1968 the villagers

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caught three Jarawas while they had come to the settlement insearch of iron implements. They were brought to the Police Station,where they were kept for over a month. Later they were releasedalong with some gifts of banana, coconut etc.

4.23.

4.24.

4.25.

4.26.

Between 1969 and 1974 many visits werepaid to Foul Bay and Lakra Lungta, Middle Andaman by theContact Team. Though the Jarawas used to avoid the visitors, giftitems were left for them on the shore. At that time, gift items weretied and hung from trees to save them from wild animals.Interestingly, it was noticed that the Jarawas had tied manycreepers from trees to help the visitors to hang gift articles forthem.

One day in April 1974 a few Jarawas were

seen making their hut near Lakra Lungta. Seeing approaching boatof contact team they ran away. Team anchored the boat, membersgot down and went inside the hut, where the gift items given to the

Jarawas during previous visits were also found. The team stayedthere for about two and a half hours and then returned. The nextday the Contact Team again visited Lakra Lungta in a small vessel.

This time the Jarawas were not scared. They had finally shedinhabitations. They came swimming towards the vessel. Onreaching and boarding the vessel, they scrambled for gifts.

Thereafter the Jarawas hugged all the visitors.

After 15 years, a similar friendly contactwas established by the Contact Team of the Administration with

Jarawas of South Andaman on western Coast near Port Campbellin 1989. However such missions to South Andaman Jarawas werenot frequent unlike to the Jarawas of Middle Andaman.

On or about every full moon day thecontact party met the Jarawas of Middle Andaman Island. The fullmoon day was chosen to make contacts, with view to maintain the

regularity based on the calendar intelligible to the pre-literate Jarawas. The members of the contact party were medicallyscreened to prevent the possible spread of communicable diseasesto the Jarawas. The contact party distributed gift articles likepieces of red cloth, machetes, coconuts, banana among the

Jarawas. The earlier practice of giving cooked rice to the Jarawas

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was discarded later. However, giving of puffed rice, sealed inpolythene bags was adopted.

4.27.

4.28.

4.29.

4.30.

4.31.

The Government Doctors used to be one

of the members of the Contact Team. The Doctor treated theailments like injuries on the body of the Jarawas and fungalinfection. Jarawas apparently took a liking to such healingtreatment. Many of the Contact Expedition Teams had a womanalso as a member. Jarawas were more curious about such a ladyvisitor along with the team.

The planting of banana suckers, coconutseedlings etc was demonstrated to the Jarawas in the late 1980’s.Subsequently Jarawas themselves started planting seedlings

carried by the Contact Team. They were convinced that suchseedlings would bear the fruits that the Contact Team gives them. The Jarawas, many a times insisted to come to anchored vessel ofthe Contact Team, as they believed that the ship is loaded with giftitems.

On few occasions in the earlier days, Jarawas were taken to Uttara Jetty near Kadamtala in MiddleAndaman. Such of their visits resulted in gathering of various itemsfound in the wayside shops near the jetty which included eatables

plastic goods, cloth etc.

As a general practice the male members ofthe contact team were required to wear only the lower garments i.e.half pant. However, the guests or the visiting dignitariesaccompanying the Contact Team used to wear upper garmentsalso. Many a times these members of the Contact Team gave awaytheir upper garments like shirts, baniyan to Jarawas when latterinsisted for.

Thus the Jarawas came to know throughsuch contact expeditions about medical care, clothes andavailability of plentiful gift items like coconut, banana etc. in theland of others eenem .

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4.32.

4.33.

4.34.

A Jarawa boy named Enmei met with anaccident during his usual hunting-gathering activities and wasfound immobilised due to leg bone fracture in the fringe ofKadamtala village, Middle Andaman Island, in April 1996. The A &N Administration extended him prolonged medical treatment at

G.B. Pant Hospital, Port Blair. Enmei was sent back home inOctober 1996 with a lot of gifts after he recovered.

Post- 1997 Period

On the late morning of October 1997about 25 Jarawas came out of the forest with full intention of a

contact rather than confrontation much like the friendly contactorganized and structured in past by the Administration. Enmeisucceeded in conducting fellow Jarawas as tourists to the outsideworld. Enmei’s five months stay at hospital was significant in therelations between Jarawas and non-tribal. He learned theoutsiders’s language and saw the world as presented by thehospital and other concerned agencies. He was seduced andbedazzled by all that the outside world could offer. Loaded with newexperience and capacity, Enmei become an individual with a degreeof influence on both the non-tribal authorities and certain section

of the Jarawas. Since October 1997, Enmei has conducted manytrips involving other Jarawas coming to the roadside. He wasperceived as capable of bringing the world of non-Jarawas and

Jarawas together. In a way Enmei’s structure of events pertainingto his treatment in Port Blair has constituted and structured thehistory of contact as practiced by Jarawas (Pandya 2002:3384).

In October 1998, Jarawas of SouthAndaman also repeated the behaviour of Jarawas of MiddleAndaman by coming out of their forest habitat in daytime. The

Jarawas, some time in large number naked and decked with theirtraditional tools like knife started reaching villages, roads, jettiesand other public places. They attempted to collect from housesmetal items and cloth, eatables and fancy items from the shops andbanana etc from the agricultural fields. Jarawas were a sort of bullin a china shop. These activities were perceived by the authoritiesas Law and Order issue who had also believed that such contact of

Jarawas with non-Jarawas would ultimately be harmful to the

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of October, 1999 (Mathew 2002: 155-160).

4.38.

4.39.

Dr. Mathew has further reported thatthere were 21 cases of measles, 21 cases of pneumonia andremaining 48 were cases of acute upper and lower respiratory tract

infection. Many of them also had concomitant fungal infection ofskin and infected skin abrasions. Therefore, of the total diseaseload, 23.3% was due to measles and pneumonia each, and about64% was on account of acute respiratory infection. Three of thecases with measles also had pneumonia. It cannot be said withcertainty of the 18 cases of pneumonia were also of post measlessequel or otherwise. However, the occurrence of large numbers ofmeasles among the Jarawas was an epidemic.

It is noteworthy that 10-15 cases ofmeasles occurred among the non-tribals at Kadamtala around the2nd or 3rd week of August, 1999 and the outbreak of measlesamong the Jarawas started from the 2nd week of September. Thisindicates, the non-tribal population was the source of infection ofmeasles. Measles being highly infectious, transmission occurredmainly by droplet infection from person to person. Many of the

Jarawas who accompanied the patients to the G.B. Pant Hospitalalso developed measles in the hospital, as secondary attack rate inmeasles is known to be over 80% among susceptible contacts

(Mathew 2002:158).

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Chapter - 5

Natural Resources, Their Availability and

Accessibility to Jarawas

5.1.

5.2.

5.3.

Land and land based resources form abasic substratum for the growth and survival of any humansociety. Sea and sea based resources are also significant for littoralsocieties or islanders. The mineral and bio-resources are among theland and sea based resources. As such, the resources available forthe Jarawas could be classified into three categories viz. animalorigin, plant origin, and mineral origin apart from the land per se .

The resources of mineral origin could further be grouped asindigenous and exogenous. The indigenous mineral resourcesinclude fresh water and soil while exogenous ones would includeiron, plastic, glass and cloth.

Availability and Accessibility of Land

About 200 years back the entire territoryin Andamans belonged to the ancestors of the present Andamanese

and the Jarawas. With founding of the Penal Settlement by Britishin 1858 and subsequently with the onset of the process of settlingof mainland Indians beginning in 1948, Andaman Islander’sterritory was occupied for the pursuit of the livelihood, growth andprosperity of these new players in the Archipelago. At present about649 Sq. Km of the land has been notified as Tribal Reserve meantfor Jarawas. An extensive coastal waters extending upto 3 Kmsfrom high tide mark around the Jarawa land has also beendeclared as Tribal Reserve. The Jarawas however, seem to considerthe entire land as theirs except probably that which is under the

active occupation of non-Jarawas since the notification by theGovernment about the tribal reserve is obviously beyond thecomprehension of the Jarawas as yet.

The studies show that each square mile oftropical rain forest area has a capacity to sustain and support twohunters and gatherers (Erickson and Beckerman 1975). As such,

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an area of 649 Sq. Kms appears to be adequate for the populationof less than 300 Jarawas. However, excessive denudation of suchtropical forest may lower the carrying capacity and therebyaffecting the hunters and gatherers living thereon.

5.4. Availability and accessibility of the land per se would be at stake due to encroachments on it by non- Jarawas, following recent change in the behaviour of the Jarawas. The phenomenon of such unauthorized encroachments have beenrampant in Andaman Islands. Till the other day encroachmentsinto the Jarawa territory was rather impossible because of thefierce hostility professed by the Jarawas.

5.5.

5.6.

Availability and Accessibility of Mineral Resources

Jarawas depend on the fresh waterstreams for drinking and bathing purpose. Number of streams flowin the Jarawa territory some of which are perennial. Because oftropical virgin nature of Forest and the heavy annual rainfallaround 320 cms., Jarawas appear to have bountiful fresh waterresources. However, rarely due to delayed arrival of monsoons somestreams may dry up but puddles of water under thick forest canopy

continue to exist in the Jarawa area. Further it has also beenobserved that stem juice of the plants like Calamus, andamanicus,Kurz is used by the Jarawas as water in emergency.

As such, Jarawa tribe seems to be self-reliant in respect of drinking water resources till now. But due tothe recent change in the behaviour of Jarawas, the non- Jarawasmay venture into Jarawa territory to tap / exploit the fresh waterparticularly during the dry seasons. The population of non-Jarawasliving adjacent to Jarawa territory continues to increase. Therefore

there would be a threat to the accessibility of fresh water resourcesto the Jarawas in future if the interference of non-Jarawas is notcontrolled. Increase in the activities by non- Jarawas in the Jarawareserved forest may damage the pristine ecological conditionsthereby affecting the sources of water existing through out the yearat present. Further the activities of non-Jarawas may also lead tothe introduction of water borne diseases due to contamination.

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5.7.

5.8.

5.9.

5.10.

The Jarawas use white clay for paintingtheir body routinely as per their customs and practices. This clay isavailable in the Jarawa territory and at present Jarawas do not facethe dearth of this resource. However, increased activities /

interference of non-Jarawas in the Jarawa area may affect theaccessibility of this mineral resource as well.

The exogenous items like iron, plastic andglass were available to the Jarawas on the sea-shore for centuries.

They collect these items and use them. Iron is utilized to make thearrow-heads while plastic containers are used to store the wateretc. The glass pieces are also used to cut their scalp hair as pertheir customs. These exogenous items reach the Jarawas shores asdrifts originating from the ships and shipwrecks. Iron was

considered by the Jarawas as a precious item in the past. However Jarawas secured such items later from the neighboring villagersand workers through their raids. The Administration subsequentlystarted the practice of giving the gifts to the Jarawas as a friendlygesture. The gift items include iron pieces also.

Cloth is a recent arrival in the materialculture of the Jarawas. They got it from non-Jarawas earlierthrough their raids and later as gift from the Government and othernon-Jarawas. Jarawas used the cloth as simply a source of cotton

threads to make ornaments. But of late, some of the Jarawas havestarted using the cloths secured from the non-Jarawas asgarments. This new practice may have long term effect on thehealth, hygiene and self-reliance of the Jarawas.

Plant Resources

From the point of use of plant species bythe Jarawas, the resources can be categorized as edible, non-edibleand medicinal. Plant resources are consumed as a supplement tothe animal resources. During the monsoon it was observed thatfruits, seeds, tubers and tender shoots of variety plant species werebeing consumed by the Jarawas which are available in variousforest types in Jarawa area.

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5.11.

5.12.

5.13.

5.14.

5.15.

Some are eaten raw and others afterprocessing. Most of the seeds and tubers are gathered andtransported to the camp by women, while men and childrenoccasionally help them when the seeds are abundant. It has been

noticed that the Jarawas consume more of the fruits found in theforests and honey rather than digging for tubers and roots.

Fifty five plants have been identified bythe botanists as edible ones used by Jarawas. Mostly the fruits ofthese plants are consumed by them. Botanists and Foresters haverecorded the availability of these plants as Plenty or Adequate orScare on the basis of the visual census during the different periods/ seasons of the year i.e. post-monsoon (Phase-I of the survey), dryseason, (Phase-II) and Monsoon (Phase-III). The details of the plant

species, their edible parts and their availability in different seasonsis indicated in Table 5.1 to 5.5.

The Jarawas depend upon herbalmedicines to cure different ailments. They have a practice ofapplying plant products externally as intact materials or in theform of crushed paste. As intact materials, the plants are wornaround head, neck and waist.

Jarawas used 15 plant species for

medicinal purpose viz. to get relief from body pain, stomach pain,headache, fever, cough, snake bite, insect bite, and to preventbleeding etc. The details of such species, their parts used asmedicine is given in Table 5.2.

Number of plant species have beenidentified which are used by the Jarawas for various purposesother than as food. These are used as the base for the materialculture of the Jarawas. Plants are used by Jarawas for the purposeof fuel wood, making bows, arrows, spears, bucket, basket, ropes,

ornaments, to construct huts, and as bee-repellants etc. Dependingon their availability, 20 plants are used for building their sheltersas indicated in Table 5.3, as many as 63 plants for ornamentationas given in Table 5.4 and 48 plants for various other purpose asindicated in Table 5.5.

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Animal Resources

5.16.

5.17.

5.18.

5.19.

5.20.

The Jarawas derive most of their animalfood resources from humid forests, seashores or shallow waters

and mangrove areas. They have developed an excellentunderstanding about the ecology and prevalence of various foodanimals in different niches. Jarawas were acquainted with no lessthen 150 species of plants and 350 species of animals. Theknowledge of the Jarawas about the ecology, occurrence andbeneficial qualities of these plants and animals, were quiteremarkable. The Jarawas were not a sea-faring community and hadno knowledge of canoeing. Their activities did not exceed inseawater far beyond the soil-water interface. Their understandingof the inland flora and fauna, however, was extensive.

Littoral and sub-littoral zones wereoccupied by underwater corals. The coral bed displayed variety ofmarine life like, molluscs (shelled and shell-less), echinoderms,fishes, etc. In the littoral rocks neritids, chitons, muricids etc., wereseen in plenty. A number of forest birds and several shore birdswere noticed. Occasionally beehives were seen on the trees insidethe forests.

Oysters were attached to substrata in

inter-tidal zone. A number of animals, which construct tubes andburrows, were seen in muddy zone viz., crabs, mudskippers,cerithid molluscs, etc. Many fishes, prawns, bivalves were found inshallow waters. Birds like, reef herons, little egrets, blacknapedtern, white bellied sea eagle, white breasted kingfisher etc., wereseen.

Many fishes, mostly freshwater forms,were found in the streams; crabs were occasionally noticed. Watermonitors were seen near open spaces many a times. A number ofbirds like parakeets, doves, kingfishers, crow, pheasants, swifts,bulbul etc., were also seen. Honey beehives were noticed on treesinside the forests.

Availability status of the some molluscson the rocks on seashore was observed in thirty samples on one sq.km. area on coral beds during low tide. The population of spider

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conch varied from 0-4 (mean 1.5); tiger cowrie varied from 0-2(mean 0.8); giant clam varied from 0-6 (mean 2.8).

5.21.

5.22.

5.23.

5.24.

Man-hour output of some molluscs,fishes, honey, insect larvae, etc. were recorded in several occasions.

Jarawas collected ample quantity of honey from the forest areas,especially during dry season (April-May). The honey was noticed toappear in the beehives from the last part of December and reachedits peak during the dry part of the year. The honey beehives werealso seen during monsoon (August-September), but in much lessnumber and hence the quantity of honey collection by the Jarawaswas reduced from the dry season. During dry season a personcould collect as much as four kg of honey (including beehive) in onecollection trip.

The forests in Andaman harbour some 35species of terrestrial mammals including spotted deer (Axix axisand barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak). Of them Jarawas consumeonly the wild pigs as food. The wild pig is their most preferredanimal food item, but there is perhaps a selection on the rate ofhunting of this animal at different seasons of the year. Thefrequency of wild pig hunting was maximum during the post-monsoon period (December) and minimum in dry season (April-May).

The wild pigs reside in the humid forests. They move about in bands of 4 to 10 and live on omnivorous dietlike tubers, roots, carrion, offal, etc. The water monitors inhabitwet, marshy forests, edges of watercourses and they are partiallyaquatic. They can swim far off in the sea in search of food. Theyalso prefer birds’ eggs, turtles’ eggs and fishes.

The seashores are rocky, sandy or muddy.Life on rocky shores is mainly influenced by the tides; various

neritids, chitons, muricids live here. Detritus-feeders like crabs alsolive here. Coral reef is a complex habitat inhabited by plenty ofmolluscs, fishes, crustaceans, etc. Top shell, turban shell, giantclams, scorpion shells, tiger cowrie, cockles, octopus are often seenon reef area during low tides.

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5.25.

5.26.

5.27.

5.28.

5.29.

A few birds are also eaten by the Jarawas,but frequency of hunting of birds by them was very low. The

Jarawas never consume sea cucumbers, which are often seen incoral beds. The consumption of different marine molluscs wascomparatively more during the post-monsoon season. The

availability and consumption of turtles’ eggs were doubtlessly muchmore during monsoon followed by post-monsoon season.

Mangrove is one of the most productivecoastal ecosystems and support many brackish water fishes,freshwater fishes and shell fishes (molluscs). Burrowing crabs,prawns, shrimps, etc represent crustaceans. Many of the animalsof mangroves are common to mudflats.

The Jarawas derive most of their animalfood resources from humid forests, seashores or shallow watersand mangrove areas. They have developed an excellentunderstanding about the ecology and prevalence of various foodanimals in different niches.

As indicated in Table 5.6. Jarawas use asmany as 166 animal species as direct source of food, two species asindirect source since animal produce is consumed as food, oneanimal as source medicine and seven species as source ornaments.

The availability status of animal resources for Jarawas has beenworked out as Abundant (A) Common (C) and Occasional (O) byadopted the standard norms and practice. The availability status isalso indicated in the said Table. It could be seen that out of 166animals observed 20.48% are Abundant, 69.27% Common and10.24% Occasional.

The Jarawas usually do not procuresurplus animal food items or waste those. They consume such foodfresh or on the next day. They, however, store or preserve a fewitems for a longer time (up to three weeks or so) and those may bearranged in terms of length of storage period as follows: fat of wildpig/monitor, honey, meat of wild pig, turtle eggs. They used tostore fat of wild pig often in plastic bottles. They were seen toconsume chips of Cycas seeds by dipping those into hot melted pigfat. The Jarawas used to keep honey (with beehive) in honeybuckets. These days, with easy availability of plastic bottles, they

327



preserve honey in those bottles. The Jarawas also keep the smokedand baked meat of wild pig for a few days, which they consumelater on by boiling in water.

5.30.

5.31.

5.32.

5.33.

The size of the Jarawa population at the

time of this study was less than 300 and they were living in an areaof about 649 sq. km. Therefore the resource base available to the

Jarawas was apparently quite sufficient.

Accessibility of Bio-Resources

As inferred through the diet andnutritional survey, Jarawas till now have had no severe hindrance

in accessing their bio-resources. Stray instances of poaching in Jarawa area and Jarawa coastal waters did occur in pre-1997 dayswhich, however ended in many cases in a disaster to intruders asthey were either killed by Jarawas or narrowly escaped from theclutches of death. Thus hostility of the Jarawas could defend theirresource fort jealously.

The multi-disciplinary teams during thesurvey have noticed evidences and instances of increased poachingin and around Jarawa area. The non-Jarawas clandestinely hunt

wild animals like deer, pig by laying traps in forest. At times, theyuse gun also to shoot these animals. Now, with disappearance ofvery effective deterrence against ventures into Jarawa territory inpost-1997 days, the poaching is likely to increase unless theregulatory and legal measures are given to have deterrent effectclubbed with attitudinal change and willing participation inredirected economic activities by non-Jarawas.

The non-Jarawas employ superiortechnology to exploit bio-resources compared to the primitive

technology of Jarawas. They go for mechanized extraction of theresources using modern tools, guns, boats and large nets forfishing. The population of non-Jarawas is more, their demand forresources is large and unsustainable. Therefore, they maysupercede the small community of the Jarawas in accessing thebio-resources.

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5.34.

5.35.

5.36.

5.37.

The Jarawas may be driven to wallbecause of activities of non-Jarawas in the Jarawa forest. Jarawaslocate pug marks of pigs, take position and wait for opportunemoment to shoot the boar with their arrows. The movement ofnon-Jarawas in the Jarawa area, use of their techniques to exploit

plant resources or gunning down wild animals would naturallyscare away the pigs, so the Jarawas who laid themselves waiting forthe boars will miss their game. Similarly, noise and traffic onAndaman Trunk Road may also disturb hunting activities of

Jarawas.

With the end of hostile relationship of the Jarawas with non-Jarawas the latter may begin a parasiticrelationship with the former. The non-Jarawas are the people frommarket economy as against simple Jarawas from hunting and

gathering subsistence economy. So resources which are life andblood for the Jarawas would be drained out to feed intounsustainable large market economy of non-Jarawas.

In the post-1997 situation Jarawas havebeen exposed / introduced to exogenous items and habits whichinclude the items like tobacco, Paan eatables, clothes and habits ofexpecting such items from non-Jarawas in their interface onAndaman Trunk Road, villages and other places. Liquor may tooreach Jarawa. Traditionally the intoxicants and even beverages are

not found among the Jarawas. They are self-reliant foragersdepending on none other than themselves, their society and theindigenous resources.

So the new items specially addictives maycause socio-economic degeneration among the Jarawas turningthem in due course of time dependant on non-Jarawas andexogenous resource. Non-Jarawas particularly unscrupulouselements would exploit the simple pre-literate Jarawas socially andeconomically. Sound and healthy historical silent barter system of

Jarawas may exit making way for exploitative system of exchange –“sinister-barter”. Instances have been reported, wherein non-

Jarawas got Jarawa items like bows, arrows, bucket, ornamentresin, honey etc. in exchange of tobacco, paan and some eatable.

Thus not only resources may not remain with the Jarawas for theiruse but new habits may render Jarawas incapable to access toresources.

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5.38.

5.39.

5.40.

5.41.

5.42.

Giving of gifts like banana and coconutsfrequently by the Administration apart from variety of eatables gotfrom non-Jarawas in course of their interface may lead tointroduction of “dependency cult” among Jarawas. They may not go

for the traditional hunting and gathering activity, if they continueto get the gifts of food items, as a result Jarawas would not beaccessing their bio-resources. Hunting and gathering activityamong the Jarawas form a central or predominant feature of theirsociety and culture. Thus gift giving or dole system may lead toloss of the purpose of their social existence for the Jarawas.

Bio-resources would not be accessible to Jarawas due to their diversion from foraging activities because oftheir interaction with non-Jarawas. Jarawas may indulge in

moving on Andaman Trunk Road and other places by gettingvehicle rides / lifts. Jarawa children are particularly susceptible tothis.

In course of providing modern medicalcare, Jarawas are admitted often in the hospitals away from theirterritory. A group of Jarawas may accompany the patient to thehospital located at Kadamtala., Tushnabad and Port Blair etc. Suchgroups are not only exposed to hospitals cross infection and alienfood but are away from their traditional hunting and gathering

activities and hence, not accessing their bio-resources.

In the post-1997 days there would bemore official or non-official visit of non-Jarawas to Jarawa camps.Such visit may interfere in the daily routine i.e. hunting andgathering activities of the Jarawas.

Thus, despite the availability of bio-resources the Jarawas may fail to access them in many waysunless the corrective measures are initiated.

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Documents

The Jarawa and Their Society